Spain bracing for record tourist numbers despite local fightback
The tourist boom has become a source of tension in many visitor hotspots around Spain
Spain expects record tourist numbers again in 2025 as the tension between locals and visitors increases.
An estimated record 94 million foreigners visited the country last year, 10 per cent more than in 2023, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said on Wednesday. Those numbers are expected to be eclipsed this year.
The tourist boom has become a source of tension in many visitor hotspots around the country.
In Barcelona, in November, tens of thousands of people protested about the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in the popular tourist destination.
Many locals blame the million of tourists who visit Barcelona, and the rest of Spain, each year for the high prices. Barcelona’s town hall has pledged to completely eliminate the city’s 10,000 so called “tourist apartments,” or dwellings with permits for short-term rents, by 2028.
At the protest, people held up homemade signs in Spanish reading: “Fewer apartments for investing and more homes for living" and “The people without homes uphold their rights.”
In July, tourists in Barcelona were sprayed with water guns as locals chanted “tourists go home” with placards that read “Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism”.
Hereu said the Spanish government is working on evening out the tourist influx, citing progress in setting rules and limits on the supply of rental accommodation for tourists.
"We need to persevere in deconcentrating tourism, but the good thing is that this is happening," he told reporters, adding that environmentally sustainable tourism was gaining strength in Spain.
Foreign tourists spent €126 billion (£106 billion) during their stays in 2024, up 16 per cent from the previous year, the minister said. He predicted they would spend 36 billion euros in the first four months of 2025, also 16 per cent higher than in the same period of 2024, while visitor numbers should rise by 9 per cent.
In October last year, the Bank of Spain said in a report that even though most tourism-related indicators were registering consecutive records, their growth was slowing down.
It also warned about tourism-related problems of congestion, natural resource degradation and housing, and called for a study on whether tourism fees should be increased.